


wintermelon milktea

by ali_summerset



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Childhood Friends, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Jealousy, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:48:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26495140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ali_summerset/pseuds/ali_summerset
Summary: People often made assumptions about Hitsugaya Toshiro. There were only a few who didn't, and one of them happened to be his childhood friend, Hinamori Momo.Like who could imagine cool and mature Hitsugaya could have such a sweet tooth? It was a good thing then that his Grandmother happened to own a cafe and his childhood friend happened to be such a great baker and could brew the best milk tea in town.A high school story about young love, and though there are supposed to be less complications this time around, it doesn't mean they're completely gone.{cafe au/modern au}
Relationships: Hinamori Momo/Hitsugaya Toushirou
Kudos: 10





	wintermelon milktea

There were a lot of things people thought they knew about Hitsugaya Toshiro. One look at his frost white hair and icy-blue eyes, and they easily made their own assumptions about him.

He couldn’t even count the number of times he’d been called a delinquent by teachers, until they graded his papers and then they started calling him a genius. He hated how he and other people would get such a drastic difference in treatment based on such arbitrary labels. The same teachers who used to glare at him as if expecting him to start spray-painting graffiti on the walls would now fawn over him and shower him with praises that he was sure to get into the top universities with no problem if he only listened to their advice. 

Well, it wasn’t as if he did anything to dissuade rumors about him. He did detest authority figures and he was good at fighting. No number of perfect test scores were going to erase certain incidents that had already happened. 

Besides teachers (though it was less disgusted and more baffled), he was also confused by the treatment he received from girls based on this image they had of him. Matsumoto called them fan-girls and said it was expected since he was the boy’s soccer team’s Captain, and not only was he the best player, he was even good-looking too! All this was said with a cheeky grin and a wink to which he just responds to with a long-suffering sigh and an eye-roll. 

_Taciturn, aloof, cool-ha ice pun right there, mysterious, intelligent, but also rebellious,_ Matsumoto lists all of these qualities as they’re having a brief water break. Some he distantly agrees to; others he just blanches. _Well, Taichou,_ Matsumoto says matter-of-factly, _girls like their tropes and you have that cool mysterious bad boy trope down to a T_. Her twin double thumbs up just make him want to splash her with water from the faucet, no matter how immature that would be. Matsumoto may make an okay team manager, and a good friend, but none of that will save her from his ‘icy’ glare. 

As he was saying, people often made their assumptions about him. Apparently the image he has includes liking dark and bitter things as part of the description. Passing off the random coffees he’d get to his team mates was easy enough to do, but there were times like Valentines Day where it was just too bothersome carrying a bag’s (and a locker’s and a desk’s) worth full of dark and bitter-tasting chocolate. Someone as mature as he was was sure to have sophisticated taste, he overheard some girls saying. He couldn’t stand eating the stuff but there was no way he could throw them away because it would be rude and a waste. 

Despite his uncharacteristic griping, there were some girls who didn’t treat him like an alien. Matsumoto, for all the exasperation she brings him and the weird fact that Hitsugaya hates her boyfriend’s guts for some inexplicable reason, is one of those. Kurosaki, the girl’s soccer team captain is another. As for the last…

* * *

A tinkling of the bell signals his entry.

“Looks like my Shiro-chan’s popular again this year!”

Hinamori stands there bright and cheerful, welcoming him to Peaches and Cream, like always, childish pig-tails and sweet smile in place. He ignores the unexplainable lurch he feels at the qualifier, but he knows it’s just her way of being like a doting grandmother. He doesn’t need another one though since he’s quite fine with the one he already has, thank you.

“It’s troublesome is what it is,” he grouches. “Here.” Unceremoniously he hands over the mountains of dark (he grimaces) chocolate to her.

“Mou.” She pouts predictably. “I feel bad that every year the chocolate I give you for Valentines Day is one I make from other girls’ chocolates.”

He doesn’t get his hopes up that it’s jealousy he hears in her voice. It’s just her being thoughtful as always, not wanting to trample on the sincere feelings of others.

“You’re doing me a favor. I wouldn’t be able to eat any of those otherwise,” he reassures her.

She laughs. “What would your fans think if they knew Shiro-chan had such a sweet tooth?” She goes to pinch his cheek but he deftly avoids it, when in the past he would have probably let her before childishly shaking it away. For years he’d try to get her to stop calling him with that asinine nickname, and for some part he succeeded with the occasional ‘Hitsugaya-kun’ across the years. Half-joking and half-serious, he asked if she’d ever consider calling him Captain Hitsugaya just like Matsumoto and it seemed like it was around the same time she started calling him ‘Shiro-chan’ again with a passion. It wouldn’t be obvious looking at her, but Hinamori was stubborn, even more so than him. He had to draw the line somewhere though if he ever wanted her to stop looking at him like a child. In his avoidance, he doesn’t notice the slight downcast expression she gets.

“It’s not like I try to hide it. They just don’t ever think to ask.” He shrugs. “Where’s Obaa-san?”

“Upstairs. I told her to rest. It’s not so busy so I can handle things here.”

At that moment a black-haired youth suddenly interrupts them. “Hi-hinamori-senpai? I’m done with everything. B-but if you would like some more help…” Despite Hitsugaya being right there, he might as well be air to the boy in front of him. He recognizes the other boy as a third year student at their school, in other words Hinamori’s kouhai, and technically Hitsugaya’s senpai, but there was no way he’d address him as such. The other boy also decided to apply for a part-time job at his Grandmother’s small but trendy milk tea café, and it wasn’t hard to see why.

Making sure that his irritation wasn’t showing on his face, he interrupts suddenly, “Thanks but I have it covered from here,” he drawls, subtly drawing closer to Hinamori. He holds his hand out, fully expecting the other boy to hand over the apron, with his brow raised.

The other boy - Hitsugaya does not know his name nor care to find out - looks a bit speechless while handing over the mint apron, a counterpart to Hinamori’s own peach one, but is undeterred, “Hinamori-senpai, wo-would it be okay for me to ask you something?”

Hitsugaya finds his irritation turning into anger, but he won’t say anything because it’s not his place to say anything. Though Hinamori turns a curious glance at him, he keeps his mouth shut resolving himself to turn into a block of ice like the people around him make him out to be.

He decides to clear tables as Hinamori follows the part-timer outside to hear what he has to say.

* * *

Later when the store is closed, they enjoy Hinamori’s freshly baked chocolate lava cake with whipped cream, along with Obaa-san. Hinamori even whips up their favorite wintermelon milk tea for the both of them. Some would say dessert and milk tea would be too much sugar for one day, but Hitsuagaya isn’t the only sweet tooth here. Anyway, he has his soccer to keep himself fit.

He will not ask. He can hold it in.

“So, what did that nice young man want to talk to you about Momo-chan? I do hope you’ll forgive a meddling old woman for prying. I saw the two of you from the window.” He must be imagining the side-glance his grandmother is throwing his way.

Hinamori blushes beet-red and Hitsugaya finds his resolve melting.

Be like ice, is his constant mantra.

“Of course not Obaa-chan, you’re not meddling. He just gave me some chocolate…and wanted to know if I wanted to go with him somewhere.” The last part is said in a soft whisper. “I was very flattered, but I said no.”

His grandmother gives a knowing look. They don’t bring up Kira, one of Hinamori’s best friends who also confessed last year but was turned down. They remain good friends but perhaps the distance is not as close as before. Hitsugaya doesn’t want to turn out like that.

“I like someone else….” Hinamori whispers it so softly into the quiet, a confession of her own, as if Hitsugaya doesn’t know exactly who she means.

As if it wasn’t Hitsugaya himself who comforted her after she was rejected by her first love, Aizen-sensei, in his own awkward way, plying her with watermelon and shaved ice.

As if spikes of pain didn’t lance up his spine whenever she would gush about ‘Aizen-sensei’ this and ‘Aizen-sensei’ that.

As if he didn’t work with a fervor that almost scared her, to be captain in only his second year of high school just to have some sort of title as well.

_(As if, for some reason, he felt relieved that the damage Aizen dealt was only that – a broken heart – and not so much more. It still does not stop the intense feeling of violence that rises in Hitsuagaya at the thought of him.)_

The truth is - _mature, intelligent, cool_ \- all of those things were what Aizen was to Hinamori. Hinamori would never laugh, though pity would be so much worse, but the reason he wants to desperately escape this childish persona is too pathetic.

Petty, vindictive, and immature are more apt descriptions for him.

* * *

Another misconception people have of Hitsugaya is that he was the type of person to never cry. He didn’t cry when he broke a bone in a soccer match. He didn’t cry when he fought, was beaten up, and then beat up those seniors black and blue for harassing Hinamori. All those times, it had been Hinamori crying for him, for every scratch and bruise he got when he roughhoused with kids for making fun of his appearance even as she was patching him up.

He remembers only one time he cried, and Hinamori didn’t.

He was ten and Hinamori twelve. The Hinamoris and Hitsuagayas were neighbors and close friends. He couldn’t remember a time when Hinamori wasn’t there, and he knew with the certainty of a child that she would always be there, which was why he felt it was okay to be a brat because Hinamori would stick by him no matter what. The Hinamoris and Hitsugayas were such good friends that their parents even took a trip together while little Momo and Toshiro stayed with his grandmother because it was a school night. Momo thought it wasn’t fair they got left behind.

Toshiro thinks it wasn’t fair the car they took veered off the road, crashed and burned.

Toshiro still had his grandmother, but Momo was now an orphan. He remembers crying as if his lungs would give out during the funeral, one small hand in his grandmother’s gnarled hand, and the other in Momo’s soft hand. She wasn’t crying at all, only squeezing his hand and patting his hair she always said was as soft as snow.

Grandmother makes sure Momo moved in with them in their small room above the Hitsugaya’s café. Funny how there were less people now but seemed like the air was more suffocating.

They laid their futons side-by-side in the dark. Somehow Toshiro managed to drift off to sleep before being woken up by a thunder storm and a piercing scream.

He scrambled off the sheets and went to Momo. She’d wet the bed and was shaking back-and-forth in a ball. He used to tease her about that and her fear of thunderstorms, but looking at her now, Toshiro remembers being more scared than anything he has ever been of in his life.

Toshiro didn’t usually like touch, especially not after those few months after his parent’s death, but now he hugs Momo, making sure to envelop as much of her as he can with his small body.

_“Please don’t leave me…Please don’t leave me…Please don’t leave me….”_ She muttered, rivulets of tears streaming down endlessly.

_“I won’t, I won’t, I won’t,”_ He promised, also crying.

After patting her hair like she did his, and rubbing her back, he eventually calmed her down. They end up falling asleep hugging each other and waking up with their hands clasped. They find in the morning, that though the pain is still there, it is a bit lighter, especially after finding Grandmother had set up her own futon with them.

Hitsugaya has never broken the promise he made that night and reaffirmed that morning. The promise he made to her and himself. He’d never leave her and he’d always protect her.

* * *

Hinamori has already moved out after taking so many part-time jobs to pay for her own small dorm room, even as Grandmother said that she didn’t need to. Even so, it’s still in the same neighborhood, and Hinamori has stubbornly made it known that she’d always be working at Peaches and Cream forever. Grandmother for her part named the café after the both of them.

When it gets late though Grandmother insists that she stay over. She can be as stubborn as Hinamori. With the futon laid side-by-side like this and with Grandmother, it’s like old times although time has healed the pain.

Hitsugaya doesn’t want to be a creep but he can’t help but dwell on what Hinamori looks like with her long brown hair unbound and her face relaxed by sleep.

As he also drifts peacefully into sleep he doesn’t notice her hand slowly intertwine with his.

**Author's Note:**

> my gift for @canariie.tumblr.com for the hitsuhina gift exchange
> 
> this can work as a one-shot though it can still be expanded
> 
> a few notes  
> \- Hitsugaya is a 2nd year high school student, while Hinamori is in her 4th year of high school  
> \- I'm not sure if anyone still remembers him but the black-haired youth who tries to confess to Hinamori was the nameless 12th Division Member who was one of those used as a bomb by Kurotsuchi. He accepted the assignment because he wanted to be a seated officer and transferred to the 5th Division to become closer to Hinamori-senpai. Despite his untimely demise, I relate to him because I, too, have a massive crush on Hinamori.  
> \- Aizen-sensei was the Literature Teacher at their High School  
> \- I guess they could be considered reincarnations of the characters we know and love so much. Gin gets a second chance this time around, and yes he is the rumored boyfriend of Matsumoto who Hitsugaya still hates.  
> \- After Hinamori graduates and as a parallel to her going to Shinigami Academy, she ends up going to University a train's ride away and sadness is felt immensely by all parties involved though Hitsugaya of course tries to hide it. She could have gone to a nearer University, but both Hitsugaya and his Grandmother don't want her to waste her potential. She still makes sure to come back and help run the cafe during the weekends. I imagine she'd take up Literature and Fine Arts.  
> \- After making top grades, Hitsugaya makes sure to follow her, taking up law in the same University.


End file.
